


Farewell

by castielatlas



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:07:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2119650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castielatlas/pseuds/castielatlas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol's last moments. The Cherokee Rose is fading and Daryl has no other choice but to let her go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Farewell

 

“Daryl.”

“Yea, I know.”

A relieved smile crossed Carol’s face upon hearing his answer to her unsaid request. Of course Daryl would do it; she didn’t even have to ask. Rick handed him the gun and stared at him with concern, but she didn’t see more because her attention was drawn back at Beth. The young girl was squatted next to her, hardly holding back her tears with Judith in her arms, the little girl too young to understand what was happening. They exchanged goodbye words and she rose up, Carol smiling at her as the girl joined the rest of the group. She gave the toddler to her older sister before going back inside the prison they used as shelter, disappearing out of Carol's sight. God, she would have loved to see that baby girl grow up; see her first steps, hear her first words, to teach her and protect her from the awful world they lived in.

But things didn’t always happen the way you wanted to, she had learned her lesson a long time ago. Maybe life thought she needed a reminder of what a bitch it was because it was the only explanation for that big ugly wound on her shoulder. A bite. It was all that it took for her to be done, over; doomed.

Carol didn’t want to die in a cell; she had spent enough time in prison. She had been in jail her entire life –maybe not physically, but mentally, with Ed, she had- and even if she loved those people more than she had ever loved the man who was supposed to be her family, she wanted to die below the sky, with the wind on her face and the grass under her feet. Her back against the prison’s front wall, she looked up at the sky, wide and blue and mindless of the tiny humans underneath it.

She had already said goodbye to everyone, and when Daryl came and sat next to her, he was the last one, the last face she would ever see. The man put his arm around her shoulder, careful not to hurt her as he always was, thumb brushing against her skin in a soothing caress. With him, she had learned that a man's hands weren't meant to bruise, a lesson he had somehow learned in the process, too. Slowly, as months and years has passed by, they had found confort in each other, their relationship taking roots in mutual respect and trust, deepening in fondness and love.

Carol leaned against Daryl's strong body, her short hair gently brushing the skin of his neck. Somehow, she had always known it would end up this way. She didn’t want to die, but oddly, she wasn’t afraid to, either.

She remembered the scared little thing, the quiet shadow she used to be, and for the first time in her life, she allowed herself to feel proud of herself. She had come so far, became so strong, achieved so much; it was just the final point of her journey. And she knew exactly what was waiting for her at the end. Oh she had waited _so long_ for this.

“I'm finally going to see my little girl again.”

Daryl looked down at her as she was smiling to the sunset and he noticed there was something soft in her eyes; bathed in the soft light of the sunset, she looked… peaceful. He felt his heart sink within him.

“I’ll say ‘Hi’ to your brother for you,” she added with the same untroubled expression.

Daryl snorted. Merle was long gone and he had mourned him alone, but strangely, talking about him with her always felt incredibly right. They had come to an understanding of each other that only came from shared pain. They were alike in more ways than he would have wished to. She knew what it was like to be abused, to feel like crap and to hide it all behind a façade and to pretend it doesn't exist. She knew what it was felt like to lose someone you care about, to lose family. She knew that the deads weren't forgotten, burning sorrow just turned into a quiet ache; always there.

“Yea, take that chance to kick his ass, too. That bloody moron.” Daryl finally said.

 

They both became silent again, and the silence was like an old friend quietly contemplating the landscape with them. Carol's breath gradually became more uneven, heavy puffs coming out of her mouth, and her body heat rose close to burning, even through their clothes. She took a deep breath, and Daryl felt his heart sink as she moistened her lips and used what seemed to be her remaining strength to whisper a soft, “Thank you.”

Words were not enough to express how much she was grateful but she needed to say it, because sometimes, even if words were not enough, some things needed to be said. It might just have been the spark of a burning fire, but it was important, and he would understand what she meant, like he always did.

_Thank you for the group. Thank you for Sophia. Thank you for me -for helping me heal and grow, for helping me stand by your simple presence, for letting me in, for making my second chance worth it. Thank you for everything you ever did and would have done –will still will when I’ll be gone. Thank you for all the smiles, jokes, laughs and complicity. Thank you for being you._

She closed her eyes and drew her last breath on that last thought. S

Watching her, Daryl could almost fool himself into thinking she had just fallen sleeping. Except that her chest wasn’t lifting at the rhythm of her breath, and never would. Daryl’s fist crashed into the wall so hard he felt blood flowing between his fingers. “Damn it.”

His fingers tightened on the gun and he took a deep breath.

It was done before he could even remember pulling the trigger. He took her in his arms and distastfully, it reminded him of the time he had found her hiding from walkers when the prison had been invaded. Only, that time she was alive and he was taking her to the others; this time he was just carrying a dead body to the grave.

He buried her next to Lori and T-Dog. The fresh soil looked weird next to the two other graves, which were covered by grass and only had a cross to mark their presence. He stared at it until the sun disappeared and then waited some more. She was gone, and with her all that was, all that would never be. But somehow, his loneliness felt less heavy when he thought of the little girl in the woods that was finally reunited with her mother.

The sun was almost rising when he finally walked back inside the prison.


End file.
